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With choice comes job opportunities. Many of the alternative energy suppliers in the now-deregulated Philadelphia market are hiring sales teams to sign up new customers.

North American Power, one of the 17 energy suppliers vying for business in PECO’s service area, holds career fairs at local hotels and classes for energy brokers-in-training.

(Class presenter:) “Are they residential? Are they commercial? Are they commercial-industrial? How many kilowatt-hours do they have?”

Gary DeSanto (above) is area manager for North American Power.

“For the average home, a power broker receives $15 initially, then on average $2 a month residual income
for a home,” he explains. “If they sign up a business, say a pizza shop or a dry cleaner or something like that, we pay them $40 up front.”

DeSanto says when a broker tells a potential customer how much they may save with the company, they’re all ears.

“Right now with North American Power you can save 10 percent off your PECO bills,” he says.

Gail Ceniviva of Horsham, Pa. is a commercial property manager. She says she been through deregulation before — about a year ago in Harrisburg, when PP&L’s rate caps were lifted.

“When you are doing budgets for commercial office buildings, and we have investors that we have to answer to, you are
trying to stay within a realm for the budget,” she told KYW Newsradio. “And it was just going crazy — the rate went high. With North American Power we can lock in an 18-month contract and know what we are paying, and budget accordingly.”